


Super unnatural, right?

by BayleyWinchester



Series: My Poly!Losers Fics [2]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Getting Together, Ghost Hunters, Ghosts, Injury, Multi, Nobody is Dead, OT7, Polyamorous Losers Club (IT), Polyamory, Pre-Poly, Supernatural AU - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24121024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BayleyWinchester/pseuds/BayleyWinchester
Summary: Mike Hanlon knew something was seriously wrong when six strangers arrived in Derry one day. No one ever came to Derry.He was not expecting ghosts, ghost hunting, punching ghosts or falling in love with said six strangers.
Relationships: Bill Denbrough/Mike Hanlon/Ben Hanscom/Eddie Kaspbrak/Beverly Marsh/Richie Tozier/Stanley Uris, The Losers Club/The Losers Club (IT)
Series: My Poly!Losers Fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740418
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41
Collections: Poly Losers Club Fic Exchange Vol.2





	Super unnatural, right?

**Author's Note:**

> 2 out of 2 for Poly Loser Fic Exchange! 
> 
> This prompt was: supernatural or supernatural-adjacent au. basically the losers (or some of the losers) hunt monsters.

Mike Hanlon was no idiot. 

So, when something - he couldn’t say what - was going on in his town, he noticed it. No one else seemed to. Which, sure, freaked him a little. The dreaded question of ‘am I going crazy?’ circling a few times. But, at the end of the day, seven children, two teens and an adult had gone missing in little old Derry and no one seemed to care. Ten people in total as of June 21st and Mike was desperate to not let there be a number eleven. 

But when no one seemed to care, how was he supposed to do anything? 

\--

Across the county, down in Virginia, Ben and Beverly were packing up their hotel room. Like Mike, they were not idiots and could also see what the citizens of Derry couldn’t. Just like Bill and Stan, who were driving in from Cleveland and Richie and Eddie who were heading from New York. All of them knew that something was up, although none of them could figure out what it actually was. 

There were suggestions thrown around in the pairs, often shot down by the other. Only to be replaced with something even more outlandish. Richie Tozier was absolutely certain that it was aliens, much to the annoyance of Eddie Kaspbrak, who had to listen to his theory for five hours at a time. Stanley Uris was pretty sure it was some kind of spirit, lingering in the town, Bill Denbrough couldn’t see much wrong but was still incessant that they didn't get their hopes up that it's that easy. Beverly Marsh posited that it could be a human, Ben Hanscome could get on board but really didn’t want to kill a person. 

All of them were more comfortable with monsters. 

\--

At 22 years old, Mike was young but he had seen some things. The good, the bad and just the plain weird. Lots of places were hateful, like when he went down south for two weeks and was called names more than in Derry. But, unlike those other places, Derry was just plain odd. Things happened and then no one talked about them. A storm could blow it, knock entire buildings over, but no one seemed to notice. A child could disappear and the police wouldn’t look. A person could drive through and never even notice there was a town. 

And no one ever came in to investigate the oddities that were Derry, Maine. 

So Mike had seen some things, like (only a few weeks ago) a young boy standing in front of a drainpipe and going on about a carnival and a clown while his mother outright ignored him. Or (this time years ago) an old man sitting outside the supermarket screaming about a girl that had been taken, only her little shoe left behind, and everyone walking by like he wasn’t there. Maybe that’s why Mike had finally gone round the bend. 

Because, surely, this wasn’t normal. 

There were people that Mike didn’t know in his library. Yes, that was what finally made him understand that he was going crazy. Not the popcorn he sometimes smelt when he locked up, or the choir-like singing he heard when he passed the old house on Neibolt. No, it was the fact that there were people he didn’t know sitting in his library. Six of them. Sitting in pairs, 5 guys and a girl, going through Derry’s old archives that Mike put out only a few days before. 

New people didn’t come to Derry, you see. That’s how Mike knew he’d lost it. 

At least his hallucinations were pretty. And kind of sexy if he was being honest. 

Maybe that’d be enough to get into a mental ward. ‘Hi, I’m Mike and I have six weirdly attractive hallucinations that read old newspapers in my library. Drugs please.’ He went over to the closest pair. They were all his age roughly, and all had the same extremely intense gaze. But this pair had one boy with the brightest shirt he’d ever seen. He didn’t know why his brain had come up with that. They were watching him long before he got to them, which was unsettling, but also not too bad because both of them had really pretty eyes. “Uh, hi, I’m Mike. Head librarian. Is there anything I can do to help?” 

“You wouldn’t happen to know if there were any UFO sightings recently? Would ya?”

“Richie, shut up! No, we’re just doing a little research project on local history, thank you though.” 

“My pleasure,” Mike smiled at them before going on to the pair with the girl. Local research project for school. The other pair of men, also a local history project. Weird. Maybe his brain was lazy. But also, pretty creative up to come up with the 6 most attractive people Mike had ever seen in his life. Not that it was hard, of course, he’d spent all of his life in Derry. Really weird. All of it.

About an hour before closing he saw Richie and his partner start to pack up. Before they could leave he went back over, smiling and waving as he approached. “Did you get everything you needed?” 

“Hopefully,” not-Richie answered but his tight smile suggested otherwise. 

“Well I’m going to go through some more archives after closing, you’re welcome to come back and have a look through those if needed.” 

Mike Hanlon was no idiot. He may be crazy but he wasn’t dumb. Something bad was going on and these people - all of them - were a part of it. He didn’t know how he knew but he did, and he was sure of it. Mike was going to get to the bottom of it.

Richie and not-Richie looked at each for only a moment. At that moment Mike wished for his partner, someone that he could look at for a second and understand everything they were trying to say. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the two-man pair also starting to pack up, Mike would go there next. Offer them the same thing so they could come back and Mike could get the answers he needed. Richie and not-Richie turned back to look at him with smiles on their faces. But their eyes were still so dark. 

“That would be awesome,” Richie said. “Know anywhere we can get dinner?”

Mike pointed them to the best place in town before heading over to the male-pair. “How’d it go?”

“It went,” the one with curly hair (that Mike didn’t want to run his fingers through, no thank you) said. Mike knew what that meant. That was white person speak for ‘it couldn’t of gotten any fucking worse’. But polite. Which meant, Mike internally celebrated, they might want to come back. 

“If you want to look at more archives, older ones, you can come back after closing when I’m going through them. No issue.”

The other one seemed to relax slightly at that. “That would b-be g-great.”

“Awesome,” Mike nodded. Weird, he hardly ever said that. “Sevenish is when I’ll be starting.”

The two men stood up, collecting up their notebooks that looked older than the two of them put together. Curly hair smiled at Mike, “we’ll see you then. Thank you.” 

Four down, two to go. Hopefully, they’d had just as rotten luck as the men and would want to come back. Because, and don’t ask how he knew this, but all of them needed to be in the library tonight. It wouldn’t work otherwise. He could just tell. Like he knew that something was going on in Derry he could tell that these six strangers were the key to figuring out what it was. So he walked over to the man and woman, praying that they’d say yes. If not, well he didn’t know what he would do.

“Hello again, how are you guys? Need any more help?” They didn’t look like they were packing up, but they had also arrived about two hours after the other men. “I can get more if you need it?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” the woman smiled. “We’re okay.”

“Did you get everything?”

The man shook his head, “we can deal with what we’ve got. I’m sure.”

“Well, I have to go through our other archives tonight after closing so if you want to come back and go through those you can.”

“Not if it’s any bother,” the woman replied. 

Mike smiled and waved his hand. “Truly, wouldn’t make my life any harder. And if you’re worried then you can help me put the boxes back,” he chuckled lightly. Praying to anything they’d say yes. “Make my job easier even.”

Like Richie and not-Richie, they looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Mike and confirming that they would. Mike tried not to sigh in relief. That’d be a bit weird, probably. But all six of them had agreed to come back. All six of them - seven if you included Mike - would be in the library after closing and he could ask the questions he needed to ask to find out what was happening in his town. 

As he walked away he wondered, just briefly, if those answers were something that he wanted to find. 

\--

The library was supposed to close at six-thirty, yes, but Mike was a stickler for conversations so if Mrs Molly stayed until five past seven, he wasn’t too upset. He walked her out, pleased to see all six of the strangers standing in their pairs, side-eyeing each other. Mrs Molly waved goodbye before shuffling off as Mike ushered them all in. After closing was Mike’s favourite part of the day, when it was just him and the books. But today he was glad there were people crashing his space. 

“Busy day,” he joked as they all stood awkwardly in the foyer. He hadn’t thought this through very well. His idea of outright pressing them for answers seeming a bit silly now. “Usually I get one stranger a year, not six in one day. But come on into the back. We can see what I can get you guys.”

“How do you know we weren’t planning on killing you?” Richie asked. 

Not Richie rolled his eyes. “We’re not.”

“Look, Eds, I just want to know why this nice man was so happy to have us in his library.”

The girl laughed, “perhaps he’s just nice.” 

“Fair enough, Red, or maybe he’s coming onto us,” he looked Mike up and down. “Not that I would be opposed.” Oh, okay. Mike tried not to look too much like a shocked lamb.

“Am I going to have to send you to the car?” Eds asked, rolling his eyes but clearly smiling at the interaction as they walked through Mike’s office. 

Mike opened the door to the storage room. “I’m just going to get my notebook from the floor, be back in a second. Feel free to look around. Please don’t break anything.” He stepped back, feeling slightly bad for lying to them. His notebook was right beside the door, as always. But he just wanted to see how they’d interact with each other. Because, while he didn’t know if they knew each other, they all had the same look in the eyes (not that he was looking into their eyes for long periods of time or anything). Something was up. 

It only took a moment before the woman spoke, “so this is awkward.”

“Indeed,” Richie (Mike was 99% sure it was him) said. “Who decides to do a school project about Derry, Maine?” He laughed. “Aside from students who are stuck here.”

The curly hair one spoke up, “no one. I’m guessing we’re all here for the same reason then?”

“Shit ton of missing kids,” Richie replied. 

“And the fact that no one seems to care,” the man who was with the woman said. “That’s odd, right?”

“Something’s going on here,” the curly-haired one said. “Something I haven’t seen before.”

“I only saw one news article about the rate of missing kids, and it was on some crack-journalist site. When I went to reread it, I got nothing. Not even a ‘can’t be found page’ just nothing.” Eds replied. 

Yes! Mike wanted to scream. It was odd! Really fucking odd. But they were here to help him, help the town. He wasn’t the only one who saw it now. And by the sounds of it, these people had experience in the odd. They may be Mike’s age but they’d seen things like this. Which meant that they might actually be able to do something about it. Which meant that might not be a number eleven.

“Eddie Kaspbrak!” 

“Yeah?” Eds, Eddie, answered. “Oh, shit, uh. Bill Denbrough, right?”

“Huh?” It sounded a lot like Richie. 

“Bill and his parents worked the case that killed my mom. When we were like twelve. He was the one who told me about this world. How are you?” 

“G-good. I see you’ve joined the business.”

Richie chuckled, “he’s king of the business. And you three are?”

“Beverly. And this is-”

“Ben.”

“So we’ve got three B’s. Making it four, or?”

“Stanley.”

“Too bad. Richie Tozier.”

“When did you guys get here?” Ben asked. “We came as soon as we realized that something was going wrong. But a few of our contacts didn’t see anything wrong. That’s weird, right?”

Okay. Mike nodded to himself before preparing to go back into the room. So they were in some kind of business that dealt with the abnormal. All of them had experience with, whatever this was. They weren’t the only ones out there but they were the only ones that had noticed something was happening in Derry. And it seemed like they were to help. Unless they were only interested? But that didn’t make a lot of sense. They had to be here to help.

He pushed open the door, smiling at them as he walked in. They hadn’t moved in further into the rather large storage room. And they all stopped talking when he arrived, waving his journal as if he had just grabbed it. They all smiled back at him. Fuck. Focus. “So, what kind of things are you researching? I can help you find it.”

“Crime?” Richie asked far to fast before pausing awkwardly. “We’re really into true crime.”

“Yeah?” Mike chuckled. 

Eddie nodded after he sent Richie a glare, “oh yeah. Local true crime is. Fascinating.”

“Same,” Beverly said. All of the others nodded along with her. “Crazy that we’re all into it but yeah. Same here. Ben and I are doing our project on any disappearances in Derry.”

“Well, you won’t find much. We have a lot of those but not a lot of news. People don’t seem to care much here. It’s a shame, seeing as all these kids are missing right now.”

“They are?” Stanley asked, as if they hadn’t just been discussing it. Out of all of them, he was the best actor. 

Mike nodded, “ten people total. One day they’re here, then they’re gone and by the next day no one is looking. Even the parents. So, we don’t get a lot of investigating going on.” He pulled a box down from beside the door. He’d been looking through it just last night. “There’s not a lot but here’s copies of missing kids, goes right back to when Derry was first founded.”

“Really?” Beverly asked as Bill took the lid off. Her hair practically shined in the light. Focus. 

“This is practically much all of it,” Mike motioned to the box. “Hopefully it helps. One thing I did see when I was going through was a whole lot of kids go every 27 years. Like clockwork.”

“Weird,” Richie muttered, reading a newspaper from the ‘50s. 

“Definitely,” Eddie nodded. 

Now or never. “But you’re here to stop it, right?” All six of their heads snapped up to stare at Mike. Well, even if they did decide they needed to kill him for figuring it out, at least they might help the town. First, they looked at him, then the partners they’d come in with, before looking at each other again. Then back to Mike, who had taken to standing silently in front of them. The fact that they were so hot was not making this easier on him. “Right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Bill finally said. “We are.”

“And you can help, right?”

“Hopefully,” Beverly replied after a second. 

Mike nodded, good enough for him. “Whatever you need to stop it, you can have. But there really isn’t a lot to go on. Lots of local legends, really. And people who’ve been written off as crazy.”

“Crazy people often have the right idea,” Richie muttered. 

“And local legends can be helpful, oftentimes right,” Stan said. “How did you know something, else, was going on?” 

“No one cared about the missing kids. And I’ve read through these before, so I knew it wasn’t the first time. Derry may suck but the children don’t deserve to die. So whatever you need, I want to help.”

There was a pause before Richie asked, “do you have previous experience with the otherworldly?” Mike shook his head. “So you’re either really good at adapting or fucking insane.”

“Wouldn’t shock be another option?” Stan asked. 

“I guess but it doesn't fit the vibe.” 

“I know we just met, but I don’t like you,” Stan said but his eyes were shining. 

“That’s fair,” Eddie nodded. 

Beverly laughed, “I’m feeling the opposite. So, Mike, got any swanky insider knowledge for us that would make our lives a lot easier?”

“Here,” he handed her the notebook. “Everything I’ve seen or read is in there.”

“You sure you’re not a hunter?” Richie asked. 

“Is that what you are?” Mike asked. “Hunters? What do you hunt?”

Bill answered, after another moment where they all stared at him, “monsters.”

“Dramatic,” Richie muttered. 

“Very,” Eddie nodded before getting serious. “So do you want to help us, or do you want to go home and let us deal with it.”

Mike looked around at the group in front of him. All of them were looking at him with varying degrees of concern and interest. He figured this was going to be dangerous, maybe even deadly. But Derry was his town, he’d seen what was happening here. He’d seen the Cocran family screaming when their son didn’t come home only to be at the supermarket the next day like nothing was wrong. Mike had never been one to sit at home and let other people deal with his problems. So he told the group that much. 

Beverly laughed, “you’re a brave son of a bitch. I like it.”

“Definitely brave,” Stan nodded. 

“Most people would have gone home,” Ben said.

Trying not to preen too much at the praises, Mike nodded. “What do we need to do?” 

“The best part of the job,” Richie rolled his eyes. 

“Research,” Bill answered. “Figure out what we’re dealing with, where it is and then figure out how we kill it.” 

“It’s in the sewers.” All of them looked at Mike in confusion. He pointed at his notebook and then started rambling, like he did whenever he was nervous. “The thing, it’s in the sewers, I think at least. Four of the children were last seen standing beside drain pipes. Two items of clothing have been found caught on grates and such. One of the teenagers went missing at the barrens where the entrance to the sewers is. I’ve seen people yelling into the sewers as well. Which is weird, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Right? I wrote it all down in there if you want to read it.” 

Ben picked up the notebook. The rest of them blinked at him, and Mike felt so stupid at that moment. These people probably thought he was insane. God, if someone started rambling about sewers he’d probably call up Juniper and - “so you’ve done our job for us, thanks for that,” Richie laughed. Beverly and Eddie nodding and smiling at him. The thoughts ceased almost instantly. 

“Well, I don’t know what it is,” Mike muttered.

“W-what about lo-local legends? C-can you t-think of any?” 

“I have a catalogue of local legends?” All of them looked happy at the prospect. Mike could understand. It’d taken him months to sort through and organize the different documents the library stored, they were probably grateful it had been done for them. Now they just had to figure out what one to look for. All of them aside from Bill walked away, heading to where Mike had pointed. 

Bill smiled at him, “thank you.”

“I should be thanking you,” Mike said. “You’ve come to save the town.”

“That’s kuh-kind of my job.”

“Well, my job is being a librarian. Not really monster hunting, so just tell me what I need to do and I’ll try my best. Like I said, this town isn’t great but no kids deserve to die.” 

Humming, Bill nodded. “S-Stan’s already g-gotten yelled at. D-Derry isn’t our f-favourite place.” 

“Where is?” Mike asked, knowing that this wasn’t an important conversation but needing to know anyway. They started moving towards the others, slowly though. “I’ve always wanted to explore America, but never really got the chance.”

“I like t-towns like Derry, where you’re s-s-surrounded by nature. B-but less bigotry. Stan l-loves cities.”

"Only if they're not huge and dirty."

“New York City,” Eddie cut in. “It’s disgusting. The best place in America.”

“LA,” Richie argued back. Mike, and the others, laughed at them as they stuck their tongues out like children. It was like he’d known these people his entire life. It was just so easy. “East coast sucks ass”

Beverly shook her head, “I fucking love New York. I snuck Ben and I into fashion week last year.” 

“I’ve always wanted to go,” Eddie said, eyes gleaming. “But I couldn’t sneak Richie in. He’s an animal.” 

“We’ll go together next year,” Beverly promised. 

“Thank god,” Ben muttered. “It was so boring.”

She scoffed, “you like architecture.”

“Boo!” Richie called.

“What’s your favourite pastime then,” Ben asked. 

“Comedy. I’m guessing Stan’s is reading encyclopedias.”

“I see why you like listening to comedy,” Stan replied. “Practising. Seeing as how you’re not funny in any way shape or form.”

Richie laughed, “you didn’t say I was wrong.”

“It’s b-because you’re nuh-not.”

“Ha,” Stan rolled his eyes. “Maybe if you did some reading you wouldn’t be such an idiot?”

“Maybe,” Richie nodded. “Or I’d become a grandpa at 20 like you.”

“Mike,” Ben asked. Richie and Stan, continuing their conversation in the background. “Do you know of any stories that could relate even a little bit. Sometimes stories get altered when the original was true, so literally anything could help. Maybe it was a scary story you got told as a kid or something kids would say at school to freak their classmates out. It’d be about Derry and missing kids.” 

Beverly nodded, “and older people might know it as well. It’s not a new tale if kids have been going missing for this long.” 

In the background, Mike could hear Stan laughing at Richie and Eddie talking to Bill but he tuned them out. Thinking back to when he was a child. He hadn’t gone to school, he hadn’t even really had friends. How was he supposed to know the tales? He could feel Bev and Ben looking at him, smiling softly and trying to reassure him. God, this was all he could contribute and he couldn’t even do this? He tried to think of any story the kids at the reading club had told him but they were all so young. Fuck, he’d never really interacted with kids older than the age of ten. 

Aside from Henry Bowers. “Pennywise.”

“What?” Richie asked, all of them watching him again. 

“When I was like eight I had a really racist neighbour and his kid hated me. But I didn’t know that and he invited me over once. He told me this story, trying to scare me. I think he changed it because he said that only black kids went missing but everything else lines up with what’s happening. I can’t believe I forgot about it.”

“That would work,” Stan said. “Do you remember the story? And don’t beat yourself, people forget childhood ghost stories.” 

Mike nodded. “Back in like 1790 or something, a freak show came to Derry. In this freak show was a clown, Pennywise. Apparently that was the first time kids went missing. 27 of them in the span of three days. All of them had gone to the show so the town decided to do something and went to the freak show as they were packing up. I don’t know how they decided it was the clown but they took him to the entrance to the sewers and tried to convince him to confess to what he had done.”

“Shit,” Richie muttered. 

“That sounds like it could be right,” Eddie agreed.

“But he didn’t confess. He said that he didn’t know where the kids were, didn’t know what was happening and that he wanted to leave the town. He’d been beaten pretty badly and he promised not to tell anyone who had done it if he was just allowed to leave. He pleaded for ages before they decided to vote on what would happen next. The town voted, right there, to see if he could leave or if there would be an investigation. Everyone voted to outright kill him instead. One of the men stepped up and slit his throat before they dumped his body in the entrance to the sewers.

The story goes that before he died he painted a smile with his own blood but that’s, like, weird. No more kids went missing though, and the town thought they had caught the right person and it was over. But then, 27 years later to the weekend, a kid went missing. And over that week 27 children disappeared with nothing found. 27 years later, same thing. It never stopped. I went back through records and it’s been 27 years since the last round of missing kids. Down to the month.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. All of them soaking in the story. They looked like they were actually taking it as a real tale, not like how Mike had been scared by it. But with what they did for a living, a ghost story that might be true was probably a daily occurrence. As much as it would suck hearing scary stories, Mike would like it if he got to travel around and listen to local legends. 

“Where’s hu-his body nuh-now?”

“Sewers? There’s no evidence that any of this happened.” 

“Evidence isn’t always the be-all and end-all,” Richie replied.

“Can you get into the sewers?” Ben asked. Mike nodded. “Do people go in there very often?”

Mike shook his head, “very easy to get lost in there. They’re all original so there’s only one map left. Kids sometimes go in and take one turn before leaving.”

“If we got the map,” Eddie said, looking a little pale. “We could go into the - sewers.”

“Eds is a germ freak,” Richie explained. 

Eddie sighed, “don’t call me that.”

“Germ freak or Eds?” Richie asked, which got him a punch in the shoulder. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know where that one map is, would you?” Beverly asked. They looked at him hopefully. Mike got it, having the map would make their job a whole lot easier.

“An isle over?” 

“Oh thank fuck,” Richie muttered, grabbing Eddie’s hand. “Come on Eds, come and get it with me. Lads and Lady.”

Beverly laughed, “what a character. I like him.”

“Do you all know each other?” Mike asked. Sue him, he wanted to learn as much as he could about hunters before they left his town. 

“No,” Stan shook his head. “There’s networks but not all hunters know each other.”

“We’re quite new to it,” Ben said. 

“I’ve been doing it since I was born so I know a lot of hunters,” Bill shrugged, “so Stan knows hunters because of me. Same with Richie, he was born into this life. I know his parents, the Toziers.”

Mike nodded, “right.”

“Any other questions?” Stan asked as if he knew why Mike had asked. “I know when I started I didn’t stop asking questions for months.”

“That’s true,” Bill nodded. 

“Do you just go around hunting monsters?”

“Yup,” Beverly said.

“Find th-t-them, kill them, m-move on quickly.”

Ben smiled at Mike. God, he was cute. Mike needed to focus. “The quickly part is important.”

“We’ve had a few run-ins where people thought that we did the original killings,” Beverly laughed. “Sure, I was absolutely covered in blood and holding a crying child, but I didn’t kidnap the kid, you know?”

“I don’t, but sure,” Mike nodded. 

“You’re a character as well.”

“Thanks. I’m going to go and help Richie and Eddie. I really don’t want them to destroy my archives. Feel free to look through anything you want.”

They nodded and turned back to the box of local legends. Mike left them to it, walking one aisle over to find Richie and Eddie. They were not looking for a map. Instead, Eddie was pinned against the wall with Richie pressed up against him. Mike made a startled noise, really not expecting to see that. They pulled apart, Eddie looking up with a guilty little smile on his face while Richie looked as nonchalant as ever. Mike looked at the ground, not wanting to make eye contact. They looked even better all messed up like that.

Richie made a little laughing noise. “You’re not homophobic are you?” 

“Uh, no. No of course not. Derry is but I’m-”

“Bi,” Richie interrupted. “Right?” 

Mike nodded once while Eddie rolled his eyes. “Does your ego feel better there Rich? Now that you can validate your gaydar?” 

“It really does. I got you pegged the moment I saw you checking out all of us. Bev’s the giveaway. Although, Eddie’s gay and I saw him giving Bev the once over.”

“She’s attractive.”

“So, are you two together?” Mike asked, suddenly very ashamed that he had been practically perving on all of them this whole time. Even if these two didn’t seem to mind that much. “Like that.”

Both of them nodded. “I met Eddie on a case when we were nineteen and he joined up with the Tozier clan. We split from them when we were twenty.”

“That means I’ve been putting up with him for five years.”

“Although,” Richie continued ignoring Eddie, “I’m not super anti opening our little thing up.”

Eddie looked Mike up and down, very obviously, “neither.”

“Are we talking threesome or orgy?”

“Wow,” Stan said as the rest of them came around the aisle to stand beside Mike, “you’re doing such amazing work. I am so impressed.”

“You’re invited.”

“I’ve got the map,” Mike muttered. “It’s in that box, at the very back.”

Bill pulled the box out as Stan spoke. “Fivesome or sevensome?”

“As many as I can get.”

“I’m not a one and done kinda girl, sorry.”

“Never said one and done,” Richie shrugged. “Got that map, Billy? Let’s talk about the brewing orgy after this thing is dead. Wanna gank this sucker so I can get out of Derry. No offence Mike.”

“None took. I’m starting to feel the same way.” 

\--

The sewers of Derry were cold, dark, damp and smelt disgusting. Mike wasn’t having a blast but Stan and Eddie were clearly struggling with it more than the rest. No one could fault them, it really was gross down there. Multiple times Mike saw their partner pat them on the back or give them a reassuring smile. Once, for both, Beverly did as well. They’d only been in there for ten minutes and Mike was ready to get out of there. 

He supposed that he could just leave. This wasn’t his job. He was a librarian for Christ’s sake, not exactly trek-through-the-sewers-to-find-a-ghost worthy. The others would probably be happier with the civilian safe in his house. But they hadn’t asked him to stay away, quite the opposite actually. Hyping him up when he decided to go with them. And, for reasons that Mike could name but didn’t particularly want to, he wanted to impress the group. 

“This fucking sucks,” Richie muttered as they walked further in. The plan was to go towards the centre of the town and then see what they find. Apparently a lot of their job was just ‘let's see what happens if we do this’. Which both excited and freaked Mike out. 

“Yeah, it does,” Stan snapped. He took a deep breath before sending Richie an apologetic glance, who just shrugged and smiled back. “How much further?”

“Not far,” Eddie, who had been given the task of reading the map, replied. 

“So, Mike,” Beverly said as she sidestepped something with a little hop. “Thinking of becoming a hunter? Join us in the glamorous lifestyle?”

“For just the low low price of maybe dying every day you too can wade around in the dirty water of many random towns across America and then get yelled at for it by locals!” 

“What kind of v-voice was t-that?”

Richie shrugged, “presenter.”

“It wasn’t very good,” Stan said.

“I th-thought you were having a s-s-stroke.”

“I thought it was okay,” Ben argued. 

“And that’s why you’re my favourite.”

Stan rolled his eyes and Mike laughed at the whole situation. Cracking jokes in the sewers while hunting a ghost. What weird people. He loved it. “I am starting to see that hunting is all looking into local legends. That I would enjoy.”

“We could be like scooby doo,” Richie posited. 

“Fuck!” Eddie stopped walking, holding the map up and turning in one full circle. Everyone stopped with him, watching in silence. He sighed, looked up and down before turning back to them. Confusion written across his face. “There’s a tunnel here that isn’t on the map. It shouldn’t be here.”

“S-so we go d-down it.”

“Of course we do,” Richie sighed. Eddie turned back around, heading straight into the unmarked tunnel. Seemingly without a care. The others walking in behind him. “Follow close, Eds is real good with direction but you don’t want to get lost.”

Everyone was close enough that they could touch without even reaching out. That suited Mike, who had landed in the middle of the group (although he suspected that it was actually on purpose) just fine. This tunnel was a lot smaller, and had practically no water running through it. It wasn’t even as damp as the previous ones. Which was odd, and not particularly reassuring even if it was nicer to be in. 

It didn’t take long to get to the end of the tunnel. Which opened up into a cavern roughly the size of the library. Mike didn’t know how no one in the town knew about this place. It just didn’t make any sense. None of it did. There was nothing in the cavern, just rocky walls and a dirty floor. But - “the middle of the floor isn’t dirty.”

“Huh?” Richie muttered as they all looked at where Mike was pointing. Together they took one step in. “Oh yeah.”

“That’s weird,” Ben said.

Beverly nodded, “very. What do you guys think?”

“That we sh-s-should look at it c-closer.”

“Awesome,” Stan said quietly as they all walked further into the room. Truly, the floor was really disgusting. Dusty, grimy and gritty. Leaves and little bits of trash were swept towards the sides of the cavern, crunching under their feet. Aside from an oval-like shape, dead centre of the room. 

Richie dropped the large bag he was carrying, Ben doing the same, both of them pulling out shovels. “Let’s go.”

As they did that, Bill, Beverly and Mike walked towards the wall opposite the entrance. “Are those markings?” He asked. 

“Looks like it,” Bev nodded. “Look, groups of 27.”

“C-countdown or victims l-list?” 

“There’s so many,” Mike said, “it could be both?” 

“Could be,” Bev hummed. 

Mike turned around, wanting to see what the others were doing. That was not what he got to see. Instead of seeing them, he saw a man he had never seen before. Standing right in front of him. His eyes were dark. Almost empty looking. And his face was painted with a bloody smile. Mike screamed. Drew back and punched it in the face. Immediately it disappeared. In a moment Bill and Bev were pulling him back to the centre. Eddie and Stan also running back to the group.

“Did you just punch a ghost in the face?” Richie asked. 

“I panicked.”

“Dude, that’s awesome.”

“F-focus.” Richie nodded, he and Ben going back to digging, quicker now. “If he’s here t-then we m-might be on the right t-t-track. Hopefully.” 

Beverly grabbed Mike’s hand. Apparently the absolute dread he was feeling was on his face as well as internal. “We’ve gotta dig, find his body and then burn it. Then he goes away forever and we leave this place.”

“And if his body isn’t there?”

She shrugged, “we hope that it is.”

“Mike,” Stan said, “where have you always wanted to go on holiday?” 

“Florida.”

“Why?” Eddie asked, not looking up from where he and Bill were flipping through Mike’s journal. For a long moment, Mike felt bad. He was hindering them because he was starting to panic. And he was panicking. It felt like he was diving down into the ocean, pressure mounting and all his senses dampening rapidly. The breath leaving his body quicker than he could draw it in. He wasn’t cut out for this. “Florida, Mike, why?”

“I don’t know. I’ve just always wanted to go.”

Stan squeezed his other hand. “And you will. Once we finish this, we’ll all go to Florida. How are you guys going?”

“Great,” Ben said as he took in a shuddering breath. Bill took the shovel from him and Ben went to stand beside Eddie, continuing to read through. For what, Mike didn’t know. “I love Florida, I bet you’d like it.”

“I’m okay,” Mike muttered. And he was starting to get better. The weight on his chest lifting ever so slightly.

And then he wasn’t because right in front of all of them it was back. Fuck. His throat was slit open. Blood oozing down his chest like slime. The blood smile blending into his normal one. 

“Hello,” he sang out. Before he could continue Eddie shot him. With a gun that Mike didn’t even know they had on them. 

“A gun?”

“Full of salt,” Bev explained. “Ghosts don’t like salt.”

“Of course.”

Before anyone could reply to Mike, Richie cried out in happiness. He’d found a skull. A man’s skull. He and Bill quickly continued with the digging. Beverly pulling out a can of salt, lighter fluid and a lighter. She quietly explained that this was how they would get rid of the ghost forever. 

Just as they were finishing, the clown came back. Standing right there. Blood dripping onto the floor. He yelled at them. Everyone jumping in fright. He reached Eddie first, grabbing him by the shirt and throwing him across the cavern. The sound he made when he hit the wall was the worst sound Mike had ever heard. Richie leapt out of the hole he had made as Ben took aim. 

The shot rang out as Richie got to Eddie. Bill followed Richie. Beverly handed Mike the lighter before pouring the whole can of salt out while Stan covered the bones in lighter fluid. 

“He’s all yours,” Beverly said. 

Mike flicked the lighter on, throwing into the makeshift grave. It took a moment for anything to happen but then the entire skeleton went up, a horrible wailing sounding from around them. Mike felt an intense wave of satisfaction and relief wash of him. He had done it. They had finished it. The bastard was finally dead for good. No more people, no more kids, needed to die. His town was going to be okay. 

And then it really went to shit. Because the roof started to fall. Apparently Mike had spoken too soon. 

“We n-need to leave,” Bill yelled over to them from where he was standing with Richie. Ben and Bev were already packing up, Stan grabbed Mike’s hand and pulled. Richie was carrying Eddie who seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness. His arm bent in ways that anyone could see were wrong. As soon as they caught up, Bill and Richie were out of the cavern. All of them tearing down the tunnel as it started to collapse around them. 

And then, as soon as they got to the main sewer, it stopped. The tunnel they had just run out of closed up. As if it had never been there. Holy shit, they had actually done it. Mike had killed a ghost. 

“We need to get to the hospital,” Richie said. 

“It’s not far,” Mike replied. “I’ll drive you two.”

“We’ll go back to the townhouse and get our stuff,” Beverly said as they started moving towards the entrance of the sewers. 

“And then we’ll meet you at the hospital,” Stan continued. 

Richie nodded, walking carefully so he didn’t jostle Eddie too badly. Seeing Eddie like that, God, it hurt worse than seeing the clown right in front of him. Quicker than before they got back to their cars. 

“This is so stupid,” Richie laughed from the backseat where he had Eddie’s head in his lap.

“What?”

“This. The fact that you are equally worried about Eds as I am-” Mike’s eyes went wide as Riche talked. “-I mean I never believed in any of this stuff but now I have to because it’s the only explanation.”

“Huh?”

Stroking Eddie’s head, Richie smiled sadly down at him. “I’ve known Eds for five years and I feel the same way about him as I do about you. And Stan and Bev and Ben and Bill. All of them. Maybe not as intensely, but I can feel it growing. How stupid?” 

“I don’t-”

“‘M not blaming you, Mike. Jesus. The fact that I think you like us back is so fucking awesome. And I really fucking hope Eds is up for an orgy after all this.” He laughed but the worry never left his eyes. “If there’s one thing I’ve learnt growing up like this is that when you find something good, you hold onto it and you don’t let go. You guys are good, Mike.” He paused with a little laugh. “You do, right? Like us back. This would be really awkward if you didn’t.” 

Mike smiled at him through the rearview mirror. “I think I like you more than a normal amount.”

“Good.”

\--

An hour later saw Mike resting his head on Bill’s shoulder while Stan lay across his lap in Derry’s hospital waiting room. Beverly was on the other side of Bill, Ben across her and Richie had taken up a chair across from them. It had been interesting, talking to the nurses that Mike had known forever about why he was now cuddling with a whole bunch of strangers while another was in surgery. 

But it felt right. Aside from the missing Eddie, of course. It felt right to be with them. 

Mike could get used to that feeling.

\--

A day later saw all of them in Mike’s tiny little apartment above the library. They were staying until something was decided. Or at least until Eddie wasn’t super high on pain meds. His ideas were interesting seeing as he was dead set on the orgy that Richie had suggested even though the painkillers made it so he could hardly stand up. But really, they were just waiting to see what Mike was going to do.

“Would I,” Mike asked over their pizza dinner that night, “would I be a good hunter?” 

“You punched a ghost in the face,” Richie repeated. “Fuck yes.”

Beverly nodded, “you would. Smart, strong, super hot. You fit all the requirements.”

“Super hot,” Eddie nodded. 

“Yup,” Richie high-fived him. “The only problem with all of us linking up is this - do we stay in separate cars or do we start travelling around America in a minivan? Bill can be our soccer mom!” 

“N-no.”

“Yeah.” 

Stan spoke over them. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is this: do we all get separate hotel rooms or do we just take turns with each other? Or do we just live in a camper?”

“Camper!” Eddie said with a little gasp. “That way we would be-” he threaded his fingers together. 

“Valid point,” Beverly said. Eddie nodded back, very seriously. 

“And we can get married.”

“All of us?” Bill asked.

Eddie nodded again, “yeah. Seven-way.”

“I don’t know if that’s legal,” Stan replied. 

"That’s okay, we can just pretend in the camper,” Eddie shrugged.

“Sounds good,” Beverly said, Eddie, smiling at her before scrunching up his nose when she continued with: “my God you’re cute.”

“We’ll need to get Mike fake IDs and stuff,” Ben said. Mike tilted his head. Ben laughed, “we sometimes impersonate cops and the like.”

“Yeah you have to be chill with breaking the law,” Richie said. “Eds and I are wanted for many different things.” 

Eddie laughed, “Richie got arrested for public indecency once!”

“I love high Eddie,” Beverly cooed. “You’re going to tell me that story, aren’t you?” She asked and Eddie nodded seriously. “We can laugh at Richie!” Eddie let out a little ‘yeah!’ which caused everyone to burst out laughing, Eddie pouting before he joined in a moment later. 

“S-so, Mike?” 

And really, was there another option? “I think a minivan, but only if we can take turns with the music.” The smiles that came onto everyone’s faces answered that question better than Mike ever could. 

\--

Across the country and two years later, The Losers Club was thriving. It had been so easy to fit in with each other. In the four weeks, they’d taken to leave Derry, drive to Florida and have a holiday, they’d become so in tune with each other. Almost to a crazy extent. It was as if they had been together since childhood. Mike had gone from having no one to having six people who loved him and who he loved right back. 

“Mike, do you need any help?” Stan lent his head out of the car - a minivan.

“He’s beefy,” Richie yelled back. “He’s fine!” 

“So’s Ben!” Eddie called.

Ben laughed, “do you need me to come and help, Mike?”

“Go and help, then we can watch,” Beverly replied. 

“I’m fine!” Mike placed his bag in the back of the car before climbing in and settling down beside Stan. “Ready.” 

They were heading to Ohio. Another angry spirit causing mayhem. Mike knew what he was doing. Knew about the terrifying and wonderful world of the supernatural. He was experienced, good at his job. Good at being a part of the group. And for that he was thankful. 

Thankful that he had approached all six of them. They’d all expressed the idea that it had been Like that created the group. He wasn't really sure about that, but he did now that he loved them. He knew what love was now, thanks to them. 

Mike Hanlon was no idiot.


End file.
